Most buses are pretty close to the max load on the front axle, so I don't think it would be good to think about putting an extra load on the front.

Before we start on the back, recall that adding 500 pounds (or whatever the load) on either end is not adding the same weight to the axle. There is leverage involved and a quick "summation of moments" (engineering 101) calculation will show what the real impact on the axle is. The axles are probably strong enough to take the load, but the suspension components may not be (especially true with the Torsilastic springs)

Now lets go to the back. Adding 500 pounds is the same as putting a 5000 pound trailer on the back in terms of vertical load on the frame structure. 1000 pounds would be the equivalent of a 10K trailer etc. As we all know, the trailer subject comes up fairly frequently and the discussion always digresses into a debate (like oil and antifreeze ).

In those discussions, i stand on the side that extreme caution must be exercised. For the most part, the structure on these buses were not designed to have large vertical loads applied back of the bumper. Then you have the impact of years of corrosion on the structure. I have seen Eagle tubing (structural members) that are perhaps 1/2 the wall thickness of the original tubing or less. My Eagle is not too bad as far as rust is concerned, but when I did my engine conversion, I decided to "double tube" all of the structural tubing in the area. I had to be very careful when doing the welding not to burn through the compromised original tubing.

I'm with Ed as far as hauling a bike by using a trailer but then again I have several trailers. If you do decide on the carrier route I would opt for a lift type system and not a ramp with that size of bike. I have no idea what the frame of your bus looks like but after seeing pics of others doing such I'm sure you can also.

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Seven Heaven.... I pray a lot every time I head down the road!!Bad decisions make good stories.

Cody, Any thing can be done, properly. Since your welder sounds more than qualified to do the needed fabrication, that is gonna be half the battle right there since metal shavings are not your forte. As Jim mentioned the reinforcing of the engine compartment will be critical in building the lift you want on the rear. Talk to Sonny Gray and a few others about what has been accomplished successfully back there.

My concern with the extended hitch is that it is harder on the steering components of the towed. The further the ball is from the rear axle, the harder it is.

When you make a right hand turn with the bus, the towed first makes a left hand turn followed by a right hand turn. The more the ball pivots, the worse it becomes, theoretically to the point where the towed goes lock to lock.

We really have two issues here. One is how much we load up the rear axle and Torsilastic and, two: is the rear structure strong enough to support the load.

Lets look at the first one. If we take a very simplistic look at the loads and assume there is no bogey, then the "summation of moments becomes very easy. I just measured my Eagle and the distance from the front axle to rear axle is roughly 293 inches (within a couple of inches - good enough for this example). The distance from the front axle to where the load would probably be concentrated is approximately 416 inches. If we sum moments about the front axle and assume a 1000 pound load (I think that would be low with the structure that Cody is looking at) it looks like this:

Obviously the bogey will handle some of that load. Will that be too much - probably not, but I just wanted to point out what happens when you put a load about 10 feet behind the axle.

Even the best hitch fabricator is attaching to the existing structure. If the existing structure has not been compromised much, it might handle the load. Personally I would not hang even 500 pounds on the back of an Eagle without reinforcing the structure to offset the affects of corrosion and possible lack of strength of the original structure.

One thing you guys forget is the bottom frame is not tied into the roof frame on each corner that has to be addressed before hanging that much weight from a hitch. I weld tubing and tie the 2 together as tough as the Eagles frames are people do overload the rear but that said I have seen lots of Eagles with motorcycle racks on the front and rear

Cody, when you install a 60 series in a Eagle they re index the boogies to carry the weight and FWIW the 15 with the series 60 used a heavier rear axle,Jim is not going to tell you wrong he puts a lot of research,time and energy into these items maybe to much LOL but I go with him

Cody, people have done it and you could too. I think that what is being said is that even though it is being done there is the potential for problems and those problems could be serious. I don't think that anyone is trying to rain on your parade, they are just trying to make you aware of areas of concern. I am sure that you could have it fabbed up by the best welder in the world and still have it fail sometime down the road and yet somebody else could cobble it up with bubble gum and bailing wire and run with it for years. Some people are just really lucky and some aren't. I have seen people do things dozens of times with no problem that if i had tried to do would have crippled or killed me. And i have done things that other people would never try to do because of the same reason. It all depends on your comfort level i guess.

Cody,I was just trying to inform you on how the Eagle frame was built and rebuilding your baggage bays will not add any strength to the Eagle frame it has a truss frame at floor level from front to back Slides can cause problems on a Eagle also just like they do on a Prevost or MCI it is not a given by any means like I said people install those carriers on the back of the Eagles anything is possible if you throw enough cash at it this is not coming from the metal police but the school of hard knocks lol so have at it my friend